My favorite is the poetaster, someone whose poetic reach exceeds his grasp.
I heard it at a dinner party where a guest read a brief trite poem she had
written about springtime. A literate snob at the table feigned praise by
congratulating her as a true poetaster. She was pleased with his compliment,
and he was pleased with himself.

From: Gustavo Espino (gusadri yahoo.com)
Subject: -aster suffix

The suffix -aster reminds me of the Spanish words for stepmother and
stepfather: madrastra and padrastro.

In French we also have a very useful one: médicastre, to denote a bad doctor
using a lot of empty incomprehensible words. Molière, who had lost a son,
his best friend, and seen how powerless médicastres were to cure the Queen
Mother hated them and made fun of them in his comedies : Le médecin malgré
lui (The doctor despite himself) and Le malade imaginaire. Very funny and
so profound.

This usage reminds me of a Yiddish idiom which has the effect of delivering
a put-down. Simply add -n as in paintner, a sloppy housepainter with
delusions of grandeur, or a Sunday afternoon dauber who's always trying
to sell a work of art to YOU. A neighbor of mine was a quiltner; my
mother-in-law, a jewelner. Yiddish put-downs are an art form -- so don't
call them Yiddish speakners.

It's not often that I can invent a limerick which involves the use of
a synonym for the daily word challenge.

She said with a very warm smile,
Which disguised a large part of her guile,
"I think it is bunk,
To call me QUIDNUNC,
Which describes a yenta gentile."

From: Rudy Rosenberg Sr (rrosenbergsr accuratesurgical.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--analphabet
Def: An illiterate; one who doesn't know the alphabet or the basics of something.

Although not his favorite curse, Analphabete (Fr.) and Analphabete Diplomed
(Fr.) appeared in Captain Haddock's curses in Tintin, The Seven Crystal Balls
and in Treasure of Red Rackham; at least in the French version.

I first encountered this word in the "subtitle" of the (in)famous New York
club, CBGB. Its full name was CBGB & OMFUG; the first part stood for
"Country, Bluegrass, Blues" and the second for "(and) Other Music For
Uplifting Gormandizers."

Ironically, the club became famous not for country, bluegrass, or blues but
for performances by punk rock and New Wave bands like the Ramones, Blondie,
Television, et al. A stickler might say the names should've been reversed.
But CBGB's certainly does sound catchier than OMFUG.

I suppose Utah's famous Rain Man could be called wifty. He's certainly
eccentric, but far from silly. An an autistic savant, he may have read more
books than anyone else in the world. Twenty years after his moving story
was told in the Oscar-winning film The Rain Man, Kim Peek is again being
portrayed in an updated stage play with the same title at London's Apollo
Theatre. For details, see the article.

A lexicographer's business is solely to collect, arrange, and define the
words that usage presents to his hands. He has no right to proscribe words;
he is to present them as they are. -Noah Webster, lexicographer (1758-1843)